Photo courtesy: Hindustan Times
It’s official. Citing official sources, the DNA newspaper reports that over 600 tribal kids have died in Maharashtra due to acute malnutrition in the past four months.
Here are some more shocking details:
In Palghar district, barely 100 kms away from Mumbai where some of the richest people in the world reside, 126 tribal kids died due to acute malnutrition between April and July this year. All of them were less than a year old.
Unless urgent remedial measures are taken, many more lives are at risk in the next few months. According to data compiled in August by officials attached to the integrated child development scheme, 457 kids have been diagnosed as ‘severely acute malnourished’ (SAM), while another 3,159 have been listed as ‘moderately acute malnourished’ (MAM).
In Mokhada taluka of Palghar district, nearly 28% of the children were found to be severely underweight during health camps.
Maharashtra’s tribal minister Vishnu Sawara who hails from the same district is also Palghar’s ‘guardian minister’. Enraged at the government’s apathy despite the large-scale deaths, adivasis boycotted the minister when he visited hamlets on Friday.
Evidently, the Maharashtra government’s much-flaunted Amrut Ahaar Yojna to tackle the problem of malnutrition among adivasis has yet to make its mark.
The full DNA report may be accessed here.